T61P LCD quality for WUXGA [ Edited ]

[worldbuilder]

Hello all,

I just got my new T61P last week and I have to say that I, too am extremely disappointed with the screen.  It is crisp and clear, I will give it that.   But even at maximum brightness (Fn+Home), it is dark.  I have had many IBM/Lenovo laptops over the years and I only see screens this bad on 10 year old T20's!

The screen I have is the WUXGA 15.4" LCD at 1920x1200.

Is there anything I can try before calling Lenovo about this?  Do I just have the graphics settings wrong somehow?

Thanks!

Chris

Message Edited by worldbuilder on 08-13-2008 08:25 AM

[eli2k]

You can mess with the image color settings in the display properties, but I'm not sure what else can be done. You can call tech support and have it EZServ or whatever and you can ship it to the servicing center, where the technician will try to see if he can find the 'problem,' otherwise they'll just update the BIOS and assume it is fine and ship the same thing back to you (which is what is happening with me). =/

[markus]

Aaaahh. Just got the t61p back with the LG wsxga+ (was samsung wuxga). If in doubt, swap the panel is what I say now. The new panel is just perfect, clear, bright and with good colours. Well worth the hassle and cash. Now I can even use the privacy filter. Would've been impossible with the dim samsung.

Even this they borked though, neglected to ship ye olde panel which I still do want as it's the original part. Another day, another call to make to lenovo non-support.

[markus]

The plot thickens. According to the company lenovo contracts service jobs from, I don't own the old panel. Instead it now magically belongs to them. They must be doing some side business with old parts. Lenovo's support person was as astounded as I. Well, I would still have a use for the old panel as a machine panel display, so I guess I'll leave lenovo and the service company fighting over the panel and get a new one. No use trying to send a bill to me for the new panel either after I just waited a couple of weeks to get the machine panel project going.

[JHEM]

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markus wrote:
The plot thickens. According to the company lenovo contracts service jobs from, I don't own the old panel. Instead it now magically belongs to them. They must be doing some side business with old parts. Lenovo's support person was as astounded as I. Well, I would still have a use for the old panel as a machine panel display, so I guess I'll leave lenovo and the service company fighting over the panel and get a new one. No use trying to send a bill to me for the new panel either after I just waited a couple of weeks to get the machine panel project going.

---

If you have your laptop back in your possession and no one has presented a bill for payment prior to this time, I'd think it fairly safe to assume that the replacement was performed under warranty in which case the old panel doesn't beling to you anymore.

[markus]

The thing is James, that lenovo refused to replace the panel under warranty, and will still possibly send me a bill for the replacement work. We agreed with lenovo's service representative, that I only pay something for the work done now, and obviously not for the new panel since I only have one panel in all. Only thing is, that he said he doesn't really have the authority to make such decisions, but a deal is a deal. Oh well, have to see on monday what they come up with. Confusing, yes? Already ordered an extra panel anyway with built-in inverter and all.

[smontgomery]

I have not ran into an instance when an out-of-warranty repair happens, they don't just "bill ya later".  So it almost sounds like it was done, somehow, in warranty.  I have a 3-year on my T61p and have tolerated the panel for a while now.  But I think a depot call is eminent due to the poor brightness, blue haze, and bad viewing angle.

[Etheidon]

Looks like Lenovo is keen on replacing samsung's with LG's. Wish I knew this before I returned my T61p

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3929168#post3929168

Jeff

[SNissen]

I'd like to note something that pertains to this thread, to the problem/question/issue of the "dimness" of a ThinkPad T61 display.  We have two T61 models, and I just finished setting up a 6457-DSU to dual-boot between Windows XP Pro and Vista (32-bit).  This is the model with an nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M discrete graphics card with 128MB of video RAM.

Here's the kicker: To my eyes, the display is noticeably dim in Windows XP, but not in Vista!

That would suggest it's not a hardware problem..

In setting up the two operating systems, I used ThinkVantage System Update to get the latest BIOS and video drivers in each environment.  Is the Vista driver simply better, or its color settings tuned differently?

We will be investigating this issue here at Carleton College because some users have complained. I'll post more if I learn something else useful.                                            Sande